XLS-ellent or Just Good?

MAKING THE PURCHASING
In my world, the best laid plans often change without warning. Can the TOMTOM ONE XLS keep up with these changes and my spatially challenged family? The TOMTOM One XLS is exactly the same as the XL, except it adds Text-To-Speech (TTS).

Since everyone in my family suffers from the inability to read maps, I was researching GPS units and planning on buying one before our upcoming summer vacation in June. I had pretty much decided on the Garmin Nuvi 260 because it was the lowest end unit I could find with text-to-speech (where the unit’s computerized voice says “turn right on Walnut Street” instead of “right turn in 200 feet.”) It is about $235 from Amazon, but I figured it was cheaper than the blood pressure medication and family counseling that would be needed if I had to endure another vacation of constant missed turns.

However, while traveling during spring break, a relative in another town became ill and had to be taken to a specialist in a different city. What was the quickest way to get there? Where was the hospital located? What hotels are close by? What restaurants are in the area? Because of the circumstances, I decided to buy a GPS from a local retailer for the trip. It had the Garmin Nuvi 260 and the TomTom One XLS for the same $300 price.

The TomTom One XLS seemed to have all the key features I wanted and the 4.3” wide screen would be easier on my middle-aged eyes. A few minutes later I was walking out with the TomTom and the sales person’s assurances that I could return the until to any of their locations within 30 days if I didn’t like it.

FIRST GLANCE
I powered on the TomTom One XLS for the first time, it only took a few seconds to find GPS satellites. The interface was clean, mostly intuitive, and the device was easy to setup. I then selected a hotel from the POI (Points Of Interest) menu and away we went.

The first GOTCHA was when we were arriving at the selected hotel. The XLS told us to turn left when the hotel was actually on the right side of the road. I didn’t think this was a big deal since the hotel was clearly visible from the highway.

After securing a hotel room for a couple of nights, we then went to the hospital to see “Aunt Martha.” I selected POI from the menu and selected “POI Near Me.” It listed a dozen or so medical facilities, but not the hospital we wanted. Well, the XLS does allow you to search by address, so I did that instead.

After a little more fiddling, I found the hospital listed in the Medical POI category by doing a search. The reason I didn’t see it the first time is that “Near You” means within about a 10 mile range and the hospital we wanted was about 15 miles away from our hotel. I selected the hospital from the list and away we went again. It is also possible the hotel wasn’t listed as being near us because the XLS only shows the closest 24 facilities.

As we approached the hospital, the GPS directed us to keep going straight when the road signs clearly said to take a different exit. We did as the road signs said and when we arrived, the GPS indicated the hospital was about a half mile further ahead.

I used the “Correct a POI” option and noted the change on my GPS, which was easy to do. All I did was click on the pointer that indicated where we currently were and the location symbol for the hospital moved to it. After clicking “OK,” I was asked if I wanted to submit the correction to TomTom. I did. After getting back to the hotel, I made a similar correction for its location. While it was easy to correct the maps, it was annoying having to correct a map when I just paid $300 for this device.

A PLETHORA OF PREFERENCES
Back in our hotel room, I played with the XLS a little more. There are many customizable preferences. Under “Safety” you can set option to warn you when you are near schools or churches, drive over a set speed (which you select).

You can set which POI it will show on a map such as restaurants and gas stations (POI are covered more in the POI section.) You can set the volume, manage POI, change the status bar, set the clock, set battery saving options, change map colors, set brightness, set planning preferences, choose toll road options (avoid them, never avoid them, or ask), pick compass preferences, change the voice (more about that in the HEARING VOICES section), set the until preferences (miles or kilometers, time display, Celsius or Fahrenheit, etc.), set keyboard options (such as large and small), and set other options.

The status bar options lets you customize whether or not it displays things like “Remaining Time,” “Remaining Distance,” “Current Time,” “Arrival Time,” “Speed,” “Direction,” “Next Street Name,” “Current Street Name,” or “Show Leeway to Arrival Time.”

The XLS can be password protected by installing the TomTom Home software (available for free from TomTom’s website) and choosing the “Set Owner” option in the preferences menu.

HELP! I NEED SOMEBODY!
The “Where Am I?” option gives your exact location by street and Latitude\Longitude. There is also a “Help Me” feature that I really like. Within it, the “Drive to Help” option lets you find the nearest car repair service, hospital or clinic, fire station, police station, pharmacy, or dentist.

The “Walk to Help” guides you to the nearest gas station, public transportation, police station, pharmacy, fire station, or your home. There is a first aid guide in UK English (and available in about 15 other languages except US English.) The “Other Guides” option contains mundane topics like “Country Information,” “Different Traffic Regulation,” and “Repair and Maintenance.”

Since the unit is Blue Tooth 2.0 enabled, I thought the “Phone for Help” option would give me the ability to dial 911 if I couldn’t talk or if my arms were crushed in an accident but could still reach the GPS screen with my nose. Not so. All “Phone For Help” does is list your location if you have to call 911 or list directory information for the nearest police stations, fire stations, hospitals, public transportation locations, car repair services, dentists, pharmacies, or vets.

“Phone for Help” is just a glorified phone book that will go out of date as information changes. Presumably, when you pay for map updates (more on that in the MAP MAFIA section) this information is updated also. Emergency phone numbers are another thing I feel should be update for free.

POINTS OF INTEREST
You can look for POI near you or in any city on the map. You just select “POI Near You” or “POI in City” then you can search the POI by category or by name. If you select the Restaurants category, for example, it will list restaurants it knows about sorted by distance and give you the phone number (which you CANNOT dial through a Blue Tooth connected phone.) The number or restaurants listed seems to be limited to the 24 closest ones. If the restaurant you want is the further away than the 24th one, you have to search for it.

In the preferences menu, I turned selected the options to list restaurants and gas stations which showed a golden knife and fork, and gas station symbols on the GPS map to indicate when we were near one or the other. While I can see this being a useful feature if you zoomed the map out to see if anything was near you if you were hungry or low on gas, it didn’t appeal to me because all the restaurants and gas stations were clearly marked along the highway.

If you want to see them as you drive along, there are also options to show: Airports, Ferry Terminals, Fire Stations, Gas Stations, Playing Fields, Railway Stations, Amusement Park, ATM Machines, Beaches, Border Crossings, Camp Grounds, Car Dealerships, Car Rental Facility, Garages, Casinos Colleges\Universities, Companies, Convention Centers, Cultural Centers, Dentists, Golf Courses, Hospital\Clinics, Hotels, Ice Skating Rings, Libraries, Marinas, Movie Theaters, Museums, Nightlife, Open Parking, Pharmacies, Places of Worship, Police Stations, Post Office, Rest Areas, Schools, Shops, Shopping Centers, Sports Centers, Stadiums, Swimming Pools, Tennis Courts, Theaters, Tourist Attractions, Tourist Information Centers, Veterinarians, Wineries, and Zoos.

You can also Add, Delete, or Edit POI, and add or delete a POI category that you have created yourself. You cannot edit TomTom’s POI. When adding your own POI, you can label the entry with a meaningful name.

TomTom did miss a golden opportunity to endear itself to me with its POI: We are planning a five hour trip to state park this summer and thought I’d use the “POI Along Route” option to see what restaurants we would pass along the way to help with itinerary planning. Unfortunately, it only showed the 24 restaurants closest to me instead of all restaurants along the entire route. Of course, I could also search for restaurants near destination, but that’s not what I wanted.

If TomTom had given me the ability to see everything I wanted, such as all the amusements parks, restaurants, rest stops, gas stations, museums, and zoos along the way, I probably would be so enamored with this feature that I would be more willing to overlook some of its other quirks.

At home, the XLS listed one restaurant that has been out of business for a couple of years and said a “El Pollo Loco” is nearby when there isn’t one. That’s not just inaccurate, it’s cruel.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
Due to circumstances, we were not at home when we received word our relative was ill and so the route home was different from the way we came.

After we entered our home address, the GPS took only a minute to calculate the fastest way home. The directions were spot on except the voice occasionally gave us little warning when turns were coming up. In one instance (and only one so far) the unit failed to tell us to keep turn right when there was a fork in the road.

We had enabled the option to show Rest Stops, but it missed at least two of them.

The “Trip Time Remaining” feature was very useful in answering the many, “How much longer?” questions from the kids. Having an accurate view of which direction we were traveling, a mileage count down to turns, and warning when we were going over a set speed was also very useful.

After about 3 hours on the road, the suction mount just lost its grip and the XLS fell off the windshield. It fell off again on 30 minute trip from home. Other reviewers mention the weak windshield mount on the XL\S unit too and this is a huge annoyance.

GPS\USB=ABC
Once home, the TomTom One XLS easily plugged into a USB port on my PC with the included USB cable. My only complaint is that the USB plug is on the bottom of the unit. While that’s great for when you are using the unit in the car with the lighter\USB connector (also included), it’s not so handy when you want to set the unit on your desk. Fortunately, you can just lay the unit on it’s back. You can’t see the screen, but you really don’t need too in these circumstances.

The “TomTom Home” software, which allows you to update you GPS unit, was easy to download from www.tomtom.com and easy to install. Among other things, you can upload the map corrections you make and download ones made by other users. How do you know jerks or novices aren’t submitting incorrect information? Well, you don’t. But you do have the option of downloading only corrections verified by TomTom, submitted by “many” users, or all corrections submitted to TomTom (not recommended.)

Playing with the XLS when it is not connected to a the PC or car lighter with the included USB cables really drains the battery and the battery life is a scant two hours to begin with.

MAP ACCURACY
Like many people, I believed that US based NavTeq produces more accurate US maps than Dutch based Tele Atlas. However, Tim from GPS Review, WWW.GPSREVIEW.NET, did an extensive 500 address test using 250 business and 250 residential locations. His research concluded that Tele Atlas maps were actually about 6% more accurate than NavTeq's.

Tim is quick to point out that the difference is negligible and maintains that the map provider should not be a factor when selecting a GPS device.

See Tim's test at www.gpsreview.net/navteq-vs-tele-atlas.

MAP UPDATES
Browsing around the TomTom Home software gives you a peek into greedy corporate minds. GPS manufacturers figured out that they can squeeze even more money out of you by charging for map updates.

My unit came with Tele Atlas’s map version 710.1575 of US\Canada and Puerto Rico. The newest version is 715.x. TomTom, (and other GPS manufacturers) are thrilled to sell you the newest maps for a fee, which is about $100 for a map of US\Canada\Puerto Rico for TomTom users.

To lure new customers, TomTom has instituted a “Latest Map Guarantee” which promises you can download the newest maps for your unit for 30 days after the unit is first used. To access this feature, you use start the TomTom Home software, click on the tools menu, and select the “Use Latest Map Guarantee.” It took a few tries, but I was able to download v 715. In the unlikely event that a new map is released within those 30 days, I can download it for free also.

Be sure to back up your unit with the backup feature in TomTom’s Home software or you run the risk of losing your updates if your unit ever has to be hard reset.

I’m not sure if Garmin offers a free map update for 30 days, but I can tell you I would by UPSET if I paid $300 for an electronic map and had to shell our another $100 for the newest map.

In it’s infinite graciousness, TomTom does offer you the option of buying one of Tele Atlas’s regional maps for $59.95. If I go on the Alaskan fishing trip I’ve always dreamed about, the Canada\Alaska Map will only set me back $79.95. It’s nice of them to make me pay for Canada again since it is already included with the US map.

The MapShare feature, where users make corrections and submit them to TomTom is free, but only for the first year. Afterwards, a year of service, which includes free US\Canada\Puerto Rico map updates during that time, is $99.95.

I’m unhappy that GPS manufacturers don’t offer at least a Highway\Interstate and one regional map update for the support cycle of the product or say, five years. The GPS I had on my PDA several years ago offered free map updates for life at the time.

While it often feels like GPS companies want to squeeze every dime they can from us while we struggle to pay over $3.00 a gallon for gasoline, TomTom wants to help ease our pain by selling us their fuel price service (provided by OPIS via INRIX) for $15 a year. This service lists gas prices at gas stations in their POI. If this service saves me 10 cents a gallon every time I put gas in the car, it will pay for itself only after 150 gallons, or after about 10 fill-ups. But since I am unlikely to save 10 cents every time, it will probably take much longer than that. Of course, I can always just use free websites like www.gasbuddy.com to find the cheapest gas.

TomTom has formally launched a bid for Tele Atlas. If they are successfully, I hope that lowers map prices. For the pundits who believe (and perhaps rightly so) that NavTeq maps are more accurate, it is interesting to note that as recent as late 2007, Garmin was in a bidding war with TomTom over Tele Atlas and did not even try to compete with Nokia in its attempt to acquire NavTeq. After dropping out the bidding war, Garmin inked a deal to continue using NavTeq’s maps through 2015.

If TomTom acquisition of Tele Atlas goes through, many industry analysts believe that Microsoft or Google will eventually acquire TomTom.

HEARING VOICES
The “Voices” option on the TomTom XLS is misleading. It comes with four preloaded voices voices, but only the single computerized voice option has the ability to read street names, and this voice-to-text feature is the only reason I was willing to pay an extra $50 for it over the TomTom XL.

You can download other free voices, but there is a GOTCHA here too: The descriptions don’t tell which are computerized.

For about $5 each, you can download voices from a Sean Connery sound alike, Granny Rose (some people might be comfortable with their grandmother give them driving directions, but not me—especially since she can’t drive,) John Cleese, a NY cabbie, someone who sounds like an English Butler, a confused Swed, a seductress, and someone doing a terrible Don Corleone (from the movie, “The Godfather.”) Since these are recorded voices, they cannot do text-to-speech either, but nothing is specified in the description.

GOOGLE MAPS
Google Maps gives you the option of downloading an address to your GPS, but it is not stored as a POI, nor do you have the option of storing it directly to your own POI category. But you can add it to your Favorites sans phone number. When you transfer it from your Favorites to your POI category, the XLS prompts you for a phone number. I have no idea why the phone number is not store with the contact in the first place.

Importing business addresses into a GPS could have been a great feature, but once again, TomTom neutered it. Why do you do keep doing this to me, TomTom? Why? I want to commit to you, but you keep trying to get by on your looks instead of living up to the potential that I fell in love with.

It would be very useful if you could somehow send your route from Google Maps to a GPS since creating an alternate route is much easier in Google than on a GPS.

MY WAYWARD WAYS
A feature that the TomTom XLS has that the Garmin Nuvi 260 lacks is multiple Waypoints and Destinations. My understanding is that the Nuvi 260 offers one Waypoint (AKA Via Point.)

TomTom defines Waypoints as places you want to pass through to you destination and defines a Destination is a stop.

The XLS treat each stop as a separate trip. For example, if I define Aunt Martha’s house as a stop on our way to a state park, the trip from our house to Aunt Martha’s house is treated as an isolated trip. The trip from her house to the state park is another trip.

Waypoints are places you want to pass through on your way to your destination and you are not warned when you are approaching or going through a Waypoint. You could use a Waypoint to force the GPS to calculate a route using a certain road. You could also make Aunt Martha’s house a Waypoint on your way to a state park instead marking it as a Destination.

When planning a trip, it’s easy to make Aunt Marth’s house a Destination if I have it saved in a personal POI category: First, I scroll to the “Itinerary Planning” option from the main menu, I click Add, then I click on Point of Interest, select “POI in City,” select Skunkwater, TX on the menu screen, click on the personal POI category where I stored Aunt Martha’s address, then select the address. Making her address a Waypoint instead of a Destination just takes a couple of clicks.

Making Aunt Martha’s house a favorite saves a few steps (but Favorites don’t have phone numbers) and not having it as a Favorite or a personal POI makes the process more arduous.

LONG IN THE (BLUE) TOOTH
The TomTom ONE XLS has Blue Tooth 2.0, but it can only be used to connect to TomTom services.

There is a confusing array of services available to TomTom XLS users who have mobile phones with Blue Tooth and wireless data connections (GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or CDMA.) I describe this feature confusing because I can’t figure out how to get the unit to find our blue tooth enabled phones, subscribe to the services, or how much the services cost. If you want to wrestle with this, you can go to www.tomtom.com/plus and look at the Traffic, Safety Camera, Maps, Voices, POI, Buddies, Audio Books, Routes, and Weather options. The aforementioned Gasoline Price Service is available too, but I can’t find it again after stumbling across it accidentally one time. Not all these options are available in the US or for the TomTom XLS.

While our Blue Tooth enabled phones didn’t find the XLS, the XLS was able to find our phones. However the GPS keep asking for a password and none of knew what password it was talking about or that our phones even had a password.

TRAFFIC UPDATES
To get real time traffic updates to your XLS, you can purchase a RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver for $129.95 OR use your Blue Tooth enabled phone with a wireless data connection. The RDS-TMC receiver includes a 1-year subscription to the service. I can’t tell how much the Traffic Service costs because when I explore that option on the TomTom Home menu, it is blank.

The TomTom’s website says that traffic data is refreshed every 5 minutes and that during 30 hours of travel during rush hour, an average of only 2.4MB of data is transferred during a typical month. A wireless data provider may charge only by data transferred or by connect time.

SD CARD
While the TomTom XLS boasts a SD card slot, the card and the internal memory cannot be used at the same time.

THE COMPETITION
Judging from reviews, the Garmin Nuvi 260 is more accurate and only costs $235.91 from Amazon. But I have grown fond of the XLS’s 4.3” screen. The newer Garmin Nuvi 260W also has a 4.3” screen, but is it currently running $349 on Amazon, which is $60 more than the TomTom One XLS.

The Garmin 260\W has a four hour battery life, but doesn’t offer the “Help Me” or “Where Am I” feature, and doesn’t let you enter multiple Waypoints.

Garmin uses NavTeq maps, which many people say is superior to the maps produced by the Dutch firm Tele Atlas.

I’ve never used TomTom’s or Garmin’s technical support so I cannot comment on them based on personal experience, but many reviews have noted TomTom’s poor customer support and praised Garmin’s.

TomTom offers an Internet user forum at www.tomtomforums.com. Garmin currently does not have a similar offering that I am aware of.

The primary difference between the TomTom XL and XLS models is that the XLS has Text-To-Speech (TTS). Map Share comes preloaded on the XLS but is a free upgrade for XL users. Personally, I wouldn’t buy a GPS without TTS.

WILL IT STAY OR WILL IT GO?
I have 28 days left to return the unit, and I’m torn. On one hand, I do enjoy the 4.3” screen, free map updates for 30 days, and it costs about $60 less than the Garmin Nuvi 260W while offering a couple of more features. On the other hand, I expect more accuracy for this price range, TomTom has skipped some easy ways to make the XLS very useful, and the service options are costly and confusing.

PROS
*Easy to use
*30 Day “Latest Map Guarantee” from TomTom
*Free MapShare for a year
*Nice 4.3” touch screen
*Highly customizable
*Way Points (AKA Via Points)
*User forums, http://tomtomforums.com.

CONS
*Not as accurate as the Garmin (based on other reviews)
*No automatic day-night mode.
*No automatic on-off with car ignition.
*Cannot use SD Card and the internal memory simultaneously
*Many services cost extra
*Some services hard to use and understand
*MapShare becomes a paid service after a year
*Weak windshield mount
*Two hour battery life
*Poor manual

WHAT’S IN THE BOX
*Windshield Mount
*USB Car Charger
*USB Computer Cable
*Documentation

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
*High sensitivity GPS chipset
*64 MB RAM
*CPU 266 MHz
*4.3 inch full TFT color LCD touchscreen (480 x 272 pixels, 64,000 colors)
*Internal memory 1 GB
*SD slot (only for additional maps, SD not included)
*Bluetooth™ 2.0
*Internal Litium-Ion battery (2 hours operation)
*4.7" x 3.4" x 1.2", 7.4 ounces
*Operating temperature: 14 °F to 131 °F

COMPATIBILITY
Bluetooth connection is for access to TomTom PLUS Services ONLY.

T-Mobile: Motorola PEBL U6, Motorola KRZR K1, Motorola V195, Nokia 6600, Motorola V3, Motorola V3i, Nokia 3650, Nokia 5300, Nokia 6131, Nokia 8800
AT&T/Cingular: Nokia E62, Nokia E61, Nokia 9300i beta, Nokia 9300, Nokia 7610, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6131, Nokia 3650, Motorola V3x, Motorola V3i, Motorola SLVR, Motorola V3, Motorola l6, Motorola L2, Motorola ROKR, Nokia 6230, Motorola Q9H, Motorola MPx220, Motorola KRZR K1.